Tomorrow I'm planning on making some not-eggrolls. Which basically means, taking the spring roll wrappers and wrapping other things in them. I'll be freezing them to cook later, so I won't be able to blog right away how they came out.
But today I did prep and planning.
Roll #1 is going to be teriyaki steak, feta cheese, and scallions. Today I grilled and sliced the steak.
Roll #2 is going to be chicken, cheddar and broccoli. The chicken was rubbed with a mix of onion powder, garlic powder, salt and pepper (heavy rub) and grilled, then sliced. The broccoli is also already cooked. These will not appeal to everyone. Maybe I'll make a couple without broccoli.
Roll #3 is hopefully going to be a crabcake roll. I'll saute onion, garlic and celery, then mix in crabmeat and parmesan cheese and use that for the roll. It sounds good to me, anyway!
I may have to change my diet. Not to lose weight, although really, I need to do that to. But rather, because I have fibromyalgia, one of the treatments is a modified eating habit.
Which means changing the way I eat, and the foods I use, in order to cope.
So far, the elimination of MSG is an easy hit. I don't like it anyway.
The elimination of Aspartame? Harder, but I can drink sodas with Splenda. I *will* miss light yogurt. *sighs*
The one that will hurt the most is the elimination of anything from the nightshade family. No potatoes. No tomatoes. *groans* I'm Italian and the husband's Irish!!!
There's a recommendation to go to a full Raw vegan diet, but that simply ain't happening in this household.
I've been doing the reading but have yet to talk to the nutritionist about how to do this without having to cook separate meals for me and the family. How to figure out proportions. How to figure out what helps lessen my pain, which is the whole goal here.
Recipes will continue to be posted, but you will probably see some interesting experimentations as I jump through hoops and find out what's best for me and my family. And if anyone out there has pointers to interesting sites that might be able to help me along my way, I'd love to see them!
It must be easy to tell when we have company! As you can see, we went through a fun selection of wine this weekend, trying new tastes. This was the first time we've ever served a white or a dessert wine.
Kevin and I split the duties this weekend -- I did Christmas Eve while he handled Christmas Day. I got lucky and after having thought I would need to work on the Eve, it turned out I had the day at home. Which was good, since it allowed me to both wrap presents and complete the menu for the evening. Dinner was for 8 adults and two small children. Recipes to be posted later.
Before dinner:
Cheese & cracker tray (including aged cheddar, brie, and applewood smoke cheddar)
Shrimp with homemade cocktail sauce (a mix of recipes garnered from FoodTV)
Dinner:
Brined & Grilled Cornish Game Hens
Saffron Risotto
Steamed Green Beans
Dessert:
Liz brought a wonderful assortment of cookies & Jenn brought a ginger cake to share that a client had sent her.
I didn't count on us eating quite so much *before* dinner as we did (and I didn't even get out the frozen appetizers!) so I made too many of the baby chickies. But it was all good, and the risotto is a definite keeper (recipe to be posted soon). We served the Tyrell's pinot and the Relax riesling, with the Red Electra after dinner.
For Christmas, Kevin was inspired by Alton Brown's episode about prime rib, and decided to cook our first. Not an experience to be repeated soon, not so much because of taste (it was OMG good) but because of expense. Yowch! But oh so worth it!
He had complete control over the menu, and his parents brought in a small appetizer plate and the Sebastiani merlot.
Dinner:
Prime rib
Roasted garlic smashed potatoes
Buttered asparagus
Salad
Bread (store bought Italian... we needed one thing easy! *grins*)
Christmas breakfast was handled by my mom who brought a wonderful coffee cake (I'll grab the link for that later).
Overall, a weekend of good food and good eating. We'll be enjoying the leftovers and I get to take prime rib to work for lunch! *grins*
On Friday I came home and found Kevin on the phone with our propane/oil company, demanding to know why we had no propane. Turns out, after four attempts to have propane delivery turned on, they had never asked us for paperwork, nor gotten anything filed to do it. Needless to say, we're without oven and stove this weekend.
Of course, this is the weekend I was supposed to be baking up a storm for the dessert party at work on Monday. I was despondent. I *love* baking. It is my favorite form of cooking. Okay, well, candy making comes in close, too.
Then on Saturday morning we went out and bought a small appliance that we've been wanting for a while. And suddenly my troubles were over.
Yes, I've been baking in a toaster oven. The recipe for the cookies I made this morning follow next entry.
But I have one question... is my foody license revoked because I've been baking with cake mix and doing it in a toaster oven??
Today Kevin and I learned that Christmas shopping near a cooking store (or a wine store!) can be dangerous.
Not that any of it isn't useful! No, no, it's all stuff we needed (well, maybe except for the food). We got a 12 inch spatter screen, which is good for the 12 inch skillet (the smaller spatter screen just wasn't doing it). Two small scoops for cookie baking. A new parmesan cheese grater. A new pepper mill (since Kevin dunked the other in the crockpot and it just *didn't* come clean). Four small glass oil cruet jars with nice spouts.
We had stopped into the specialty food/wine store early in the day, and they had recommended coming back for the wine tasting later. So I sent Kevin there while I picked up a last few things. When I got there, I tried a couple of wines, and we ended up buying three more wines (for my already too full wine cabinet). A red because of the name (Chateu St. Nick, which Kevin intends to try for Christmas Eve). A Relax Riesling white, which was soft and fruity, without being overly dry or sweet. An Electra (or was it Elektra? anyway...) which is a darling dessert wine which isn't too sweet but is rather like a soft mellow juice. Very nice and simple, and I'll have that out for after dinner at Christmas Eve.
And yes, we did manage to do some Christmas shopping for other people too. *smiles* But I swear, every place we stopped that had to do with cooking, we came out with *something* for us.